Takachar’s co-founder, Vidyut Mohan/ Image via Janta Ka Reporter
Prince Williams, Queen Elizabeth 2nd's grandson and creator of the annual awards presented winners at a ceremony here. The award was created to reward efforts to save the planet against climate change and global warming. Five were announced as winners, and each won a million pounds (1.4 billion dollars).
The televised event featured renowned naturalist David Attenborough and the rock band Coldplay, singer Ed-Sheeran and others. The event was, however, marked by royal displeasure at world leaders' inaction on climate change. Prince William expressed his hope that the award will propel the fight against climate change leading up to the COP26 summit (26th United Nations Climate Change Conference), yet to open in Scotland at the end of the month. He called those shortlisted in the awards as "innovators, leaders and visionaries".
In a short film recorded for the ceremony in the London Eye, Williams says that "actions we choose or choose not to take in the next ten years will determine the fate of the planet for the next thousand". Though a decade does not seem long, humankind has an outstanding record of being able to solve the unsolvable, he added.
The Republic of Costa Rica won the "Protect and Restore Nature" award for the nations efforts to protect forests, plant trees and restore ecosystems. Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado said they received the recognition with pride. He added that what they have achieved in a small country can be done anywhere.
Coral Vita, from the Bahamas, won the prize for a project that grow corals in tanks. They could grow it 50 times faster than average coral growth.
The Italian city of Milan won the "Food Waste Hubs" award for collecting unused food and distributing it to the needy. The "Fix our Climate" was won by a joint Thai-German-Italian team for their AEM Electrolyzer. The invention uses renewable energy to make clean hydrogen by splitting water into constituent elements.
The finalists were chosen from more than 750 nominations, and companies will help them develop their projects.
The 'Earthshot Prize' was launched in October last year, inspired by US President John F. Kennedy's "Moonshot" project in the 1960s to put a man on the moon. The award covers areas such as "how to protect and restore nature; clean our air; revive our oceans; build a waste-free world; and fix our climate". Prince William announced that the 2022 edition of the awards would be held in the United States.
While the royal family took digs on world leaders for not acting on climatic concerns, campaigners alleged climate hypocrisy from the royal family. The largest landowner in Britain, the family has given over lands for hunting and farming. Last weekend, a children's march to Buckingham Palace in London was held to deliver a petition asking the queen to rewild royal lands.